Chapter 10

Remus woke up with a searing pain in his head. Remus put his hand to his forehead and noticed that he had a temperature. Luckily, it was Saturday, which meant Remus could spend the whole day in bed, which was what he was planning on doing.

He made himself a cup of tea, and snuggled into his blanket, relishing the feeling of the warm, and comfy blanket.

The tea kettle began steaming, so Remus poured the hot water into his favorite mug, placed it in a teabag, and added a few spoons of sugar.

Though it was really hot, Remus took a long sip of it, sighing in contentment as the warm water trickled down his aching throat.

Sirius and James walked over to his bed a few seconds later, staring at the tea held between his two scarred hands.

"Lemme try," Sirius said quickly, grabbing the piping cup of tea and bringing the cup to his lips. His expression turned to one of disgust. "Eww!"

"You don't even like tea, why'd you drink it," Remus laughed, and James took the cup from Sirius, taking a small sip.

"Do you know what this is missing?" James said excitedly and Sirius seemed to know exactly what he was going to say next.

"Firewhiskey!" The two of them cheered in unison and Remus just stared at them. They probably learned that from some seventh years, Remus thought. He had heard a couple of seventh year boys say that a couple days ago at lunch, and Sirius and James probably just copied them.

James crouched down, and pulled a bottle from underneath his bed, excitement gleamed in his eyes as he held the bottle for Remus to see.

"You're not going to drink that are you?!" Remus exclaimed, eyeing the firewhiskey in James' hand. They are too young to drink that stuff!

"Why wouldn't we," said Sirius, and Peter walked out of the bathroom, gasping when he saw what they were doing.

"You guys can't drink that! You're too young!" Peter squeaked.

"Aw Peter, it's all in good fun, besides, one broken rule never hurt any one!" Sirius teased and Peter didn't look convinced.

James popped the lid of the Firewhiskey, pouring it into Remus' cup of tea. There goes my tea, he thought, and he was still clinging onto the hope that they weren't going to drink it.

Sirius and James stared in amazement and Peter stared in horror. Finally, the bottle was empty and James and Sirius glanced at each other. Sirius began lifting it to his mouth, excitement flashing in his gray eyes.

Suddenly, Sirius fell to the floor, he screeched, dropping the cup and the contents splashed everywhere. Remus noticed that Peter had crashed into Sirius, and whether that was an accident or not was not known.

"Peter!" Sirius yelled, "You spilled it! How are we going to get more!"

"It was for the best…" Remus whispered, and clutched his head, all the clamor was making his headache worse.

"Yeah Peter! How are we going to have fun now…" James grumbled and Peter looked down guiltily.

"Come on James, let's go do something else…" Sirius grumbled miserably. Suddenly, his eyes widened and a smile spread across his face, "I have an idea! Come on James, you too Remus."

"Can I come!?" Peter squeaked, clearly excited about the idea, whatever it might be.

"No, Remu is coming," Sirius said and Remus shook his head.

"I'm a bit tired today… Why not let Peter take my place, I'll join you next time." Remus said but unamused expressions came from both James and Sirius.

"No excuses," James began, grabbing Remus' arm, "You're coming."

Remus quickly shot Peter a look of apology and he followed his two friends out the door.

"I guess we'll be missing breakfast but that's ok I guess," said James, walking quickly.

"What are we doing anyways?" asked Remus, it was pretty hard to keep up because his legs were so sore, and his head ached badly.

"So me and Sirius were thinking," James began.

"Yeah it's a great idea!" Sirius interrupted and James shot him a look of disapproval.

"Don't interrupt," growled James, "I was thinking, we find some Nifflers, you know, those little creatures who like shiny things? Yeah, we find a few, leave them in Mggonalagal's office, and wait to hear about her reaction when she finds them on Monday!"

Remus' jaw dropped, "What! We could get expelled!" he exclaimed, and Sirius and James both shot him looks of disapproval.

"Now, now, Remus," soothed Sirius walking to stand next to James.

"You can't get in trouble if you don't get caught," the two of them said in unison, and though the two of them only knew each other for only a couple of months, they seemed closer than most friends.

Remus didn't know what to say next, "and if we do get in trouble?" he prompted.

"We won't. Period." James informed.

Remus, James, and Sirius, exited the school, and walked out into the crispy, autumn, air. It was the perfect temperature and Remus could help but sigh constantly.

"If we are doing this," Remus began reluctantly, "How are we going to get the nifflers?"

"Oh, we're going to find them," James responded.

"Find them? Have you ever seen one outside?" Remus said. He had hardly ever seen Nifflers, and the only ones he saw were held in captivity.

"Well, there's a couple I used to see near my house, but other that that no,"

This is helpless! Remus thought, groaning inwardly.

After about an hour of walking, Remus and his friends made it to a set of burrows. Remus peeked in, not seeing anything.

"There should be Nifflers here, according to Professor Skygarth…" Sirius voiced. Professor Skygarth was the Care for Magical Creatures professor, and he loved Nifflers, maybe a bit too much…

Sirius stuck his arm into one of the burrows, and a shrill screeching began coming from the burrow.

"You're scaring them deeper!" Remus argued and Sirius began digging up some of the dirt from the entrance to the burrow as though he were a dog.

"Good dog Sirius," James praised jokingly and a grumble came from Sirius.

"They aren't coming!" Sirius complained.

"It's because you're scaring them!" Remus retorted, are they ever going to learn?

"Yeah! Well the sooner they come out the sooner it's over with," uttered, and James and Sirius both began trying to dig up the burrows.

After a while Remus was getting bored to death, the burrows seemed to go on forever. Also Remus's headache was getting much worse, so bad that he had to lay in the grass to try and relieve it.

"Why don't we try to lure them out?" Remus started, "You know? With food?" Remus was surprised to see that his friends liked the idea.

"What do nifflers eat?" James questioned, pacing around.

"I don't know," Sirius admitted. "Maybe grass or something?" Sirius proposed and he and James began ripping grass from the ground, laying it in front of the burrow. This is never going to work, Remus thought, losing hope of being able to rest a bit before the full moon.

The three of them sat down on a fallen log, for about an hour, when suddenly, a pink snout appeared from the burrow, the three of them stared in anticipation as the Niffler made its way out of the burrow, lifting it's furry face to the the sky to sniff the air.

Sirius stealthily sneaked behind it, making sure it didn't see him. And right when the Niffler was about to enter the burrow again, Sirius snatches it up quickly, a small screech escaping the creature's mouth.

"Got ya!" Sirius exclaimed, holding the Niffler, "You're a wriggly one!" The creature was trying to wriggle from his grip, but Sirius made sure to hold it tight.

Remus and his friends waited a few more hours, occasionally catching a niffler, and by sunset time, they had gotten enough nifflers.

Remus looked towards the whomping willow, noticing that he had only about an hour until the full moon began.

I really have to hurry, Remus thought, and he began to feel really anxious and Sirius seemed to notice.

"What's wrong?" he asked, confusion flashing in his gray gaze.

"Nothing," he said quickly, following James as he walked towards the school, carrying one of the nifflers.

When they entered, they were welcomed by vacant hallways, which felt quite eerie.

"Let's just do this quickly and get going…" Remus told his friends, his headache suddenly reaching an unbearable level.

"Don't worry Remus, we're not going to get in trouble," Sirius reassured, and Remus felt slightly comforted by his response.

Remus and his two other friends found Professor Mggonagal's classroom, and they entered, opening the door gently to not alert any teachers who may be nearby.

Sirius let go of the door, because the niffler he was holding was wriggling. The door slammed shut, which startled Remus.

"Why did you do that?!" Remus hissed and Sirius looked pleadingly at him.

"Who's there?!" a voice sounded and everyone in the room froze.

"It's Filch…" whispered James, and he began backing up, Remus copied, and then did Sirius. "I know there's someone there!"

Remus and his friends hid behind Professor Mggonagal's desk, holding their breath and Filch walked into the room.

Suddenly, the niffler Sirius was holding wriggled from his grip, scurrying away quickly. Sirius reached for it but couldn't get it in time. He fell back against the desk, hitting his head.

"Owww…" He said and Filch turned towards them, he began walking towards the desk, a lantern held in one of his hands.

Remus held his hand over Sirius' mouth, and the three of them remained as silent as they could. Suddenly, Filch screeched, and Remus let go of Sirius' mouth.

Remus turned and saw Filch staring at the niffler at his feet, and he bent down, roughly picking it up by the scruff of its neck.

While Filch was observing the creature, Remus was overcome by a fresh wave of Nausea. He held his head between his legs, trying hard to relieve the sickly feeling.

"Let the nifflers go…" James whispered and Remus nodded, understanding where Jame's plan was going.

Remus released his grip of the plump creature, and it scurried away. James' niffler did the same.

Remus turned around and saw the Nifflers running near Filch, he turned and gasped as he saw the creatures, and he began trying to catch them.

"Let's escape…" James said, looking around as though trying to find the best escape route.

James stood up, crouching, and quickly ran across the side of the room. Filch was completely oblivious to the escape.

He gestured for Remus to come, so Remus stood up quickly, suddenly feeling very, very dizzy. He ran across the room, meeting James at the other side.

Finally, it was Sirius' turn, he stood up, accidentally knocking down a set of quills on Professor Mggonagal's desk.

He quickly sat down as Filch turned his head to where the quills fell, but he just grunted, turning his attention back to the Nifflers.

Remus saw a look of relief spread across Sirius' face as he stood up, racing across the room. When he made it to where Remus stood, he breathed in a sigh of relief, probably a bit too loud because he heard Filch grunt from inside Professor Mggonagal's classroom.

"Run!" James whispered urgently, ushering his two friends to run. Remus looked out the window suddenly and very anxious. He only had about twenty minutes till the full moon.

Remus took another passage, his friends oblivious to what he had just done. Suddenly, he heard Filch yelling.

"Why are you out of bed!" He heard Filch screech and he felt guilty about how he wasn't also there to take the punishment.

Remus ran quickly to the hospital wing, despite the soreness in his muscles and joints.

Suddenly, the feeling of nausea came back to Remus and he couldn't help but vomit warm, sour, bile onto the floor.

He gagged the last bits of it and ran into the hospital wing, panting hard in the doorway. Madame Pomfrey rushed over to him, grabbing him by the arm.

"The full moon is in fifteen minutes!" she screeched, ushering Remus out the door. "Do you want me to come with you?"

Remus shook his head, hurrying out the door and making his way to the whomping willow. He pressed on the root of the tree when he got there, entering the long passage that led to the shack where he'd transform.

Finally, Remus made it, and he felt extremely dizzy. He fell to the ground, breathing heavily, not even bothering to get up.

What will my friends think? He thought that I just abandoned them like that…

Suddenly, a searing pain spread through Remus' body, and he couldn't help but screech in agony as the transformation began…

His arms began lengthening, sprouting furs, which felt like needles to his skin. His back snapped, curving into the wolf's back, and legs began becoming longer.

I hope my friends understand, Remus thought, and that was his last thought before the wolf mind finally took over…